Qantas
Qantas Airways Limited, doing business as QANTAS or Qantas, is the flag carrier of Australia, and the largest airline by fleet size, international flights, and international destinations in Oceania. A founding member of the Oneworld airline alliance, it is the only airline in the world that flies to all seven continents, with it operating flights to Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Europe, North America, and South America from its hubs in Sydney, Perth, Melbourne, and Brisbane. It also flies to over 60 domestic destinations across Australia.
Qantas is one of the world's oldest airlines still in operation, originally founded in November 1920. Qantas is an acronym of the airline's original name, Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services, as it originally served Queensland and the Northern Territory. Since then, the company has undergone several changes, including nationalisation and privatisation. It is popularly nicknamed "The Flying Kangaroo" and has the official slogan "Spirit of Australia".
Qantas is based in the Sydney suburb of Mascot, adjacent to its main hub at Sydney Airport., Qantas Group had a 60.8% share of the Australian domestic market. Various subsidiary airlines operate to regional centres and on some trunk routes within Australia, as well as some short haul international flights under the QantasLink banner. Qantas owns Jetstar, a low-cost airline that operates both international services from Australia and domestic services within Australia and New Zealand. It holds stakes in a number of other Jetstar-branded airlines in Asia, as well as Alliance Airlines and Fiji Airways.
History
Q.A.N.T.A.S.
Qantas was founded in Winton, Queensland on 16 November 1920 by Hudson Fysh, Paul McGinness and Fergus McMaster as Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services Limited, beginning its operations with the Avro 504K, the airline's first aircraft. Q.A.N.T.A.S. eventually moved its headquarters to Longreach, Queensland in 1921, then to Brisbane, Queensland in 1930.QEA era
In 1934, QANTAS and Britain's Imperial Airways, a forerunner of British Airways, formed a new company, Qantas Empire Airways Limited. In December 1934, the new airline began operations, flying between Brisbane and Darwin. QEA flew internationally from May 1935, when the service from Darwin was extended to Singapore. Imperial Airways operated the rest of the service through to London. When World War II began, enemy action and accidents destroyed half of the fleet of ten. Most of the fleet was taken over by the Australian government for war service.In 1943, flying boat services resumed, with flights between the Swan River at Crawley in Perth, Western Australia and Koggala Lake in Ceylon, now Sri Lanka. This linked up with the British Overseas Airways Corporation, BOAC, the successor airline to Imperial Airways, service to London. Qantas' kangaroo logo was first used on the "Kangaroo Route", commencing in 1944, from Sydney to Karachi, where BOAC crews took over for the rest of the journey to the UK.
In 1947, QEA was nationalised by the Australian government led by Labor Prime Minister Ben Chifley. QANTAS Limited was then wound up. After nationalisation, Qantas' remaining domestic network, in Queensland, was transferred to the nationally owned Trans-Australia Airlines, leaving Qantas with a purely international network. Shortly after nationalisation, QEA began its first services outside the British Empire, to Tokyo. Services to Hong Kong began around the same time. In 1957, a head office, Qantas House, opened in Sydney.
Jet age
In June 1959, Qantas entered the jet age when the first Boeing 707–138 was delivered. The current parent company, Qantas Airways Limited, was incorporated in 1967. On 14 September 1992, Qantas merged with nationally owned domestic airline, Australian Airlines, renamed from Trans-Australia Airlines in 1986. Australian Airlines's aircraft started to be rebranded as Qantas aircraft in 1993. Qantas was gradually privatised between 1993 and 1997.Oneworld and Jetstar
In 1998, Qantas co-founded the Oneworld alliance with American Airlines, British Airways, Canadian Airlines, and Cathay Pacific, with other airlines joining subsequently.With the entry of new discount airline Virgin Blue into the domestic market in 2000, Qantas' market share fell. Qantas created the budget Jetstar in 2001 to compete. The main domestic competitor to Qantas, Ansett Australia, collapsed in September 2001.
Qantas briefly revived the Australian Airlines name as a short-lived international budget airline between 2002 and 2006. This subsidiary was shut down in favour of expanding Jetstar internationally, including to New Zealand. In 2004, the Qantas group expanded into the Asian budget airline market with Jetstar Asia, in which Qantas owns a minority stake. In 2007, a similar model was used for an investment into Jetstar Pacific, headquartered in Vietnam, and Jetstar Japan, launched in 2012.
In December 2006, Qantas was the subject of a failed bid from a consortium calling itself Airline Partners Australia. In 2008, merger talks with British Airways did not proceed to an agreement. In 2011, industrial relations dispute between Qantas and the Transport Workers Union of Australia resulted in the grounding of all Qantas aircraft and a lock-out of the airline's staff for two days.
On 25 March 2018, a Qantas Boeing 787 flew non-stop between Australia and Europe, connecting the two continents by air for the first time, with the arrival in London of Flight 9. QF9 was a 17-hour, 14,498 km journey from Perth Airport in Western Australia to London Heathrow.
On 20 October 2019, Qantas Airways flew from New York City to Sydney using a Boeing 787–9 Dreamliner in 19 hours and 20 minutes, the longest commercial flight at the time.
COVID-19
On 19 March 2020, Qantas suspended about 60% of domestic flights, put two thirds of its employees on leave, suspended all international flights, and grounded more than 150 of its aircraft from the end of March until at least 31 May 2020, following expanded COVID-19 pandemic government travel restrictions. To survive the pandemic, Qantas axed 6,000 jobs and announced a plan to raise A$1.9 billion in new capital. Qantas offloaded its 30% stake in Jetstar Pacific to Vietnam Airlines, retiring the Jetstar brand in Vietnam.In July 2020, Qantas retired its last Boeing 747-438ER, after almost 49 years of continuous operation of the type—the first 747-238B was introduced in August 1971. All twelve Airbus A380s were placed in storage, ten at Mojave Air & Space Port and two at Los Angeles International Airport, for a minimum of three years. The pilots of the last Boeing 747 flight to Mojave Desert via Los Angeles traced the shape of the iconic Qantas logo in the flight path before the jet continued on its journey.
In November 2020, Qantas issued a public statement expressing their intention to require passengers traveling overseas to provide proof of COVID-19 inoculation. As per the statement made by Alan Joyce, the airline's CEO, the presence of a COVID-19 vaccine would be considered indispensable for the purpose of travel. Joyce expressed their intention to potentially modify the terms and conditions, to specify that anyone traveling internationally must have a vaccination before embarking. Qantas also announced the outsourcing of 2,000 ground staff roles to reduce costs. This decision was later found to have been illegal adverse action in order to prevent industrial action, and the airline was fined $90m in addition to agreeing to pay $120m compensation to affected staff.
In August 2021, Qantas required all of its 22,000 employees to be fully vaccinated against the virus.
In May 2022, Qantas ordered twelve A350-1000 aircraft from Airbus, to be used in non-stop flights from Sydney to London in late 2025. In the same month, Qantas agreed terms to purchase Alliance Airlines. In April 2023, the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission opposed the takeover.
By April 2024 Qantas had returned ten of its original twelve A380s to service, with all serviceable aircraft having undergone major refurbishment work to enhance the onboard soft furnishings.